Can I get precise detailes regarding the shelf life of cooked rice stored in the refrigerator or coold room as we are catering company and we should know exactly the shelf life of some high risk foods like cooked rice and cooked meat .

Very difficult. I would suggest you can only get this by testing as your cooling technique particularly will be crucial to deciding the food safety.

For rice, the key things will be food safety first over food quality. You could test this but I would wager that you could keep cooked rice for 3-5 days, maybe even as many as 10 days, covered in single use containers chilled to less than 5 degrees without significant deterioration in the eating quality, however, this rice should be cooled quickly after eating and as I suggested, I would not put it into a container you mean to "dip into" and if reheated the rice should only be reheated once and very quickly.

However, as rice is the absolute typical food to cause Bacillus cereus food poisoning, I would be very cautious. If you are producing food for vulnerable groups, (e.g. kids or the elderly) I wouldn't bother, I mean, how hard is it to cook rice to requirements? It takes 10 mins! So if you're serious about this and you want to ensure safety, I would design some experiments and send it to a local microbiological lab (particularly for B. cereus but also other indicator groups, e.g. TVC, enteros or coliforms etc.) Micro testing isn't that expensive and it's easy to do. It can also give you a bit of confidence in your process. By doing this in fact you would be validating your process as designed for your HACCP study. Certainly I would not take someone's suggestion on here as being "the answer" for your shelf life question without further work in your facility.

Note, I would not try and obtain more than 10 days shelf life (and would probably guess in a catering non high / low risk segregated environment that it would be advisable to go for less) due to the risk of Clostridium botulinum. Although the rice would presumably be packed in an aerobic environment, if there is a large amount, there can be anaerobic "pockets" and 10 days is normally considered the absolute maximum for low acid chilled foods if a botulinum cook is not acheived or other hurdle factors aren't employed.

The most common problem IMEX is dehydration after more than one day requiring addition of (boiled/refrigerated) water prior to covered (microwave) reheating to visible steam production (unvalidated method but not had a problem in several years for small quantities / readily cooled leftovers). If too dry after 3-4 days, it becomes the traditional British Rice Pudding.

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We could make a huge list of rules, terms and conditions, but you probably wouldn’t read them.

Very difficult. I would suggest you can only get this by testing as your cooling technique particularly will be crucial to deciding the food safety.

For rice, the key things will be food safety first over food quality. You could test this but I would wager that you could keep cooked rice for 3-5 days, maybe even as many as 10 days, covered in single use containers chilled to less than 5 degrees without significant deterioration in the eating quality, however, this rice should be cooled quickly after eating and as I suggested, I would not put it into a container you mean to "dip into" and if reheated the rice should only be reheated once and very quickly.

However, as rice is the absolute typical food to cause Bacillus cereus food poisoning, I would be very cautious. If you are producing food for vulnerable groups, (e.g. kids or the elderly) I wouldn't bother, I mean, how hard is it to cook rice to requirements? It takes 10 mins! So if you're serious about this and you want to ensure safety, I would design some experiments and send it to a local microbiological lab (particularly for B. cereus but also other indicator groups, e.g. TVC, enteros or coliforms etc.) Micro testing isn't that expensive and it's easy to do. It can also give you a bit of confidence in your process. By doing this in fact you would be validating your process as designed for your HACCP study. Certainly I would not take someone's suggestion on here as being "the answer" for your shelf life question without further work in your facility.

Note, I would not try and obtain more than 10 days shelf life (and would probably guess in a catering non high / low risk segregated environment that it would be advisable to go for less) due to the risk of Clostridium botulinum. Although the rice would presumably be packed in an aerobic environment, if there is a large amount, there can be anaerobic "pockets" and 10 days is normally considered the absolute maximum for low acid chilled foods if a botulinum cook is not acheived or other hurdle factors aren't employed.

Dear GMO:

Actually We are producing the cooked rice for vulnerable groups especially old ages .and as you and me aware bacillus cereuce under favorable conditions start the germenation fast . I think 3 days maximum to keep the cooked rice in chiller (5 degree).

The most common problem IMEX is dehydration after more than one day requiring addition of (boiled/refrigerated) water prior to covered (microwave) reheating to visible steam production (unvalidated method but not had a problem in several years for small quantities / readily cooled leftovers). If too dry after 3-4 days, it becomes the traditional British Rice Pudding.

Actually We are producing the cooked rice for vulnerable groups especially old ages .and as you and me aware bacillus cereuce under favorable conditions start the germenation fast . I think 3 days maximum to keep the cooked rice in chiller (5 degree).

Hi :Can I get precise detailes regarding the shelf life of cooked rice stored in the refrigerator or coold room as we are catering company and we should know exactly the shelf life of some high risk foods like cooked rice and cooked meat .Regards Hygienice

A refrigerated shelf life guide from one of the IFSQN Food Service Systems:

As GMO has indicated Bacillus cereus is a classic food poisoning risk in rice when lack of temperature control permits toxin production. There is a Risk Profile from NZFSA here:http://www.nzfsa.gov...s-in-rice-1.pdf

It would be virtually impossible for Clostridium botulinum to be a risk unless you were bottling, canning or hermetically sealing the rice for storage.

Don't know whether this is any use; I work in a factory which uses cooked rice in its products; it is allowed 24 hours at refrigerated conditions by when it must be used. All validated through micro tests etc but to be honest, we didn't go for longer as we found that the quality of the rice suffers after time even if the micro is ok

As GMO has indicated Bacillus cereus is a classic food poisoning risk in rice when lack of temperature control permits toxin production. There is a Risk Profile from NZFSA here:http://www.nzfsa.gov...s-in-rice-1.pdf

It would be virtually impossible for Clostridium botulinum to be a risk unless you were bottling, canning or hermetically sealing the rice for storage.

Not so, it depends on the volume stored and the conditions, I would imagine in a several kilo tub of rice, near the bottom there would be significant numbers of anaerobic microenvironments:

"In air-packaged products, aerobic spoilage organisms provide sensory signs of spoilage before the formation of toxin by C. botulinum. However, even in air packaging it is possible for anaerobic micro-environments to exist and toxin may form if the product is subject to severe time/temperature abuse. For that reason, the country where the product is consumed may still require water phase salt as a barrier to growth"